MANCHESTER —— Leaders of parent groups at some city schools said Wednesday the ongoing budget controversy and threatened teacher layoffs are distracting their children as they finish the school year.

In a quarterly meeting with PTO members at the Manchester School District office, Supt. Thomas Brennan acknowledged that everyone feels the strain.

“It is unfortunate how much time has to be devoted to the budget process,“ Brennan said. “It takes over this building.”

If budget problems are not resolved, he said, some openings produced by layoffs will be filled by transferring teachers, he said. In other cases, laid-off administrators will return to classrooms by “bumping” teachers with less seniority.

Transfer notices must be sent by June 30. Brennan said he will try to hold off until the budget situation is resolved, but prefers to let teachers know before the last day of school where they will be working in September.

After the meeting, parents spoke of how morale in the schools suffers during the political battles over the budget.

“Teachers are finding out they're not coming back, so it's going to affect the morale of the teachers and then the students find out, and it affects the morale of the students,” parent Tim Brockway said. “It's very distracting.”

Eric Kezer said he has children at Beech Street School, Southside Middle School and Manchester Central High School.

Kezer said he tries to comfort his children and explain the situation when they are faced with news that a favorite teacher is among the 143 who have received layoff notices.

“We're not shielding them from it; they know the process. But you can't burden them with that, you want them to learn,” Kezer said. “How can you burden them with the politics of this city?”

During Wednesday night's wide-ranging discussion, the superintendent told parents he agrees with studies that show a student's future academic success can be doomed if the child doesn't develop good reading skills by fourth grade.

The superintendent said more use could be made of virtual learning through Internet video connections and programs through which students learn away from the school setting through a plan developed jointly by teachers and students.

“We really need to start dedicating resources at the elementary level,” Brennan said.